MOSCOW, June 21. /ITAR-TASS/. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) has officially asked South Ossetia to recognise its independence.

DNR Parliament Speaker Denis Pushilin presented the relevant letter to South Ossetia’s Embassy in Moscow on Saturday, June 21. The letter is addressed to South Ossetian President Leonid Tibilov and Parliament Speaker Stanislav Kochiyev.

South Ossetian Ambassador to Russia Dmitry Medoyev told ITAR-TASS that the request would be transmitted to the leadership of his country right away.

“South Ossetia is ready to consider Donetsk’s appeal and make the decision without delay. The leadership and the people of South Ossetia condemn in the strongest possible terms the continuing punitive actions against the peaceful population and the civil war which the Kiev authorities are waging against the people in the region, as a result of which innocent people - women, the elderly and children - die,” he said.

Kochiyev said earlier that South Ossetia was ready to “make a constructive decision” on the matter as soon as it received the DNR’s request for recognition, just as it had done with regard to the Lugansk People’s Republic (LNR) this week.

The DNR intends to join the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia by the end of 2015 and create a union state with Russia by the end of 2017, sharing political, economic, cultural, and security systems with it, according to the programme of priority actions announced by DNR Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin.

On June 17, South Ossetian President Leonid Tibilov said his country had recognised the May referendum in the Lugansk People’s Republic as legitimate.

On June 18, he signed a decree recognising its independence and said South Ossetia was already negotiating the establishment of diplomatic relations with the LNR.

LNR Head Valery Bolotov said on June 19 that the republic was thankful to South Ossetia and personally to its President Tibilov “for the understanding of the situation in the LNR”.

“No one can understand us better than those who have lived through a war,” Bolotov said. “We are beginning negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations with South Ossetia and their formalisation in the relevant documents”.

On June 18, Tibilov signed a decree recognising the independence of the LNR.

The LNR has asked Russia and 14 other countries to recognise its independence. Similar requests have been sent to Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, China, Serbia, Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.